Nintendo to cross divide into mobile content for smartphones

Mario and his friends may be going mobile as the struggling Nintendo announced the company is developing content for smartphones.

Struggling gaming giant Nintendo announced today the company is currently developing content for smart phones, as noted in this translation of a third quarter fiscal presentation from company president Satoru Iwata.

The move into mobile devices will not come as a surprise to those familiar with the company’s woes, namely its 30 percent drop in profit, a disaster precipitated by weak sales of the Wii U console. Several top executives accepted pay cuts, including Satoru.

“I have often heard the opinion from many that Nintendo should release its first-party content on smart devices,” Satoru said. “The rationale behind such a suggestion, in my view, is that it would be illogical not to expand our business on smart devices given that they have outsold dedicated video game systems by a large margin.”

The presentation didn’t specify what type of content was in consideration, but as reported by Kotaku, he clarified that “I have not given any restrictions to the development team, even not ruling out the possibility of making games or using our game characters. However, if you report that we will release Mario on smart devices, it would be a completely misleading statement.”

The sluggish sales of the Wii U are in sharp contrast to the rising sales of Nintendo’s handheld 3DS, which earlier in his presentation Satoru boasted as “the top-selling game device around the world last year.”

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A&E reporter John Wenzel has covered a variety of topics for The Denver Post over the years, including video games, comedy, music and the fine arts. He's been playing and loving video games since his dad brought home a sweet ColecoVision in 1983. Catch him on PSN as beardsandgum.

Hugh got his start writing for the Cheyenne and Woodmen Edition newspapers in Colorado Springs. In 2011 he moved to Denver where he has written for Denver Urban Spectrum and Colorado Community Media’s Wheat Ridge Transcript. Hugh joined The Denver Post in 2014 as an editorial assistant.